Kelpe, aka Kel McKeown, has just become my new favourite person. After listening to his new album Fourth: The Golden Eagle about a gazillion times on repeat, I think it’s safe to say that Kelpe is pressing all my buttons, and hopefully yours too.
The guy is a one-man music box and trying to categorise his sound is near impossible; the musicality within each track is astounding. In short, Kelpe has made an instrumental album that keeps the listener switched on for the entire duration. With the playfulness of artists like Bonobo as an obvious comparison, Kelpe could just as easily be likened to a band like Mogwai, when one considers the way Kelpe’s tracks build and intensify – Fourth: The Golden Eagle is certainly genre-spanning.
‘Astrolomy’ starts the album and is a heady mix of acoustic guitars and tight percussion; Fourth as a whole is driven by drums, but not in an overpowering way: subtlety is a recurring theme. The changing rhythms give colour to every song. Each subsequent track is a further joy to behold, taking the listener to a high plane of relaxing repetitive phrases and syncopated rhythms, all coming together to form a seamless mix of musical goodness. ‘Nice Eyes In My Size’ is a lovely halfway point on the record, slightly melancholic yet resiliently uplifting.
Though often surpassed by his contemporaries, Kelpe has produced a collection of songs that can hold their head high against any Four Tet or Gold Panda. First single ‘Answered’ is a tessellating rhythmic pattern of satisfying phrases and memorable motifs, decorated with jingling bells and lightly droning bass, creating a melange of sound that is a perfect end to a small masterpiece of an album. It may have been a long time coming, but it seems that Kelpe is finally ready to soar.
Fourth: The Golden Eagle is available now on DRUT Recordings.
– Liz Ward
